Third 'Ice Age' suffers from sitcom syndrome
Even the comic escapades of Scrat, the ratty, nut-obsessed squirrel, are wearing thin, just like the ice in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."
"Dawn" brings back those lovable animated mammals from "Ice Age" (2002) and "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006). Now their adventures are in 3-D, and suffering from TV sitcom syndrome.
You can always tell when a TV sitcom loses ratings and becomes desperate, It invariably employs one of four measures to lure audiences back:
1. Someone gets married.
2. Someone gets pregnant.
3. The cast goes on a trip.
4. The cast starts experiencing strange dream sequences.
"Dawn of the Dinosaurs" opts for No. 2, when Ellie the woolly mammoth (voiced by Queen Latifah) becomes pregnant, turning woolly hubby Manny (voiced by Ray Romano) into a giddy daddy-to-be. The impending birth isn't received with joy by all.
Diego the saber-toothed tiger (voiced by Denis Leary) becomes despondent, convinced that Manny can no longer be his pal. Plus, the aging Diego can't even catch a quick-footed prey for dinner. His eyesight blurs and he runs out of breath. (The issue of Diego being unable to catch food is rapidly dropped.)
Meanwhile, Sid the silly sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo) worries he'll never be a daddy. He thinks he'll never even find a mate to become a daddy with. Maybe for good reason.
Diego decides to leave the herd (apparently just so he can triumphantly return later) and Sid fulfills his paternal yearnings by adopting three cute tyrannosaurus rex babies hatched from dinosaur eggs he discovers under the ice.
Oops. Did I forget to mention that right under the ice exists an entire tropical world filled with dinosaurs and a wild, one-eyed weasel buccaneer called Buck (voiced by a highly game Simon Pegg)?
Buck comes along just in time to rescue "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" from its sitcom malaise and strained script. Bold and brash, Buck becomes the story's swashbuckling Captain Ahab, obsessed with capturing a great, white dinosaur beast even bigger than the mad mama rex who reclaims her three babies and takes them below the ice, along with a protesting Sid.
Ellie, Manny, Diego and the possum brothers Crash and Eddie (Seann Williams Scott and Josh Peck) go on a rescue mission to get Sid back. Why pregnant Ellie would go on a dangerous trip is one of many questions best left alone, along with "Why doesn't the ice covering this hot tropical world ever melt?"
John Powell's adventuresome score pumps some artificial bravado into "Dawn," a sequel that replaces pop culture jokes we normally expect in an animated comedy with a few sex-related jokes we don't.
"It's a boy!" proclaims Sid after seeing Ellie's newborn.
"That's a tail," Diego says.
"It's a girl!" Sid corrects.
See? Thin ice.
"Ice Age: The Meltdown"
Rating 2½ stars
Starring: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Simon Pegg
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier
Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG. 94 minutes